Diamond Creek Road Jeep Ride to the Colorado River

On the way to Peach Springs, AZ on Route 66 (get your kicks) and pass through the little town of Seligman, just off I-40.  In Seligman there is this little deli that has this mural on it's wall.  Some of you may not know ( although I'd be surprised, :-)) that Seligman was the inspiration town for the PIXAR animated movie, "Cars".  It's a NASCAR type spoof movie and the stars of the movie are Tow-Mater and Lightning McQueen.  The phoot above shows the two "stars".

The General Store in Seligman

After stopping by the Hualapai Lodge in Peach Springs to purchase a permit to access Diamond Creek Road ($25 per person, ouch!), we were onour way down the road.  The road begins right across the street from the lodge and is concrete for about a half mile, then turns to the type as you see in this photo the rest of the 18.5 miles.  Not bad at all except for a few places where you had to crawl.

We crossed Diamond Creek several times.

And the creek actually was the road for about a miles near the end.

The road is busy with many vehicles coming and going.  Here you see one of the "Jeep Tour" yellow jeeps bring some customers back from a morning visit.  We actually arrived around 10:30 to purchase our permit.  And this after a 2 and half hour ride from Grand Canyon Village.

We even had a welcoming committee of one to greet us about half way down the road.  He even rattled us a little.  HA!

Cute!

In the distance is Diamond Mountain.

A little closer view of Diamond Mountain.

At the Colorado River finally, and we found about 70 folks just finishing up 21 days and 120 miles of rafting from Lee's Ferry up river.  WOW!!  21 DAYS!

The shelter where we had our lunch.

Nancy wetting her tootsies.  Water temp stays around 55 year round.  Outside temp was 90.

Ranger Ernest, a Navajo, who had been a ranger for the past 12 years, and worked on the Hualapai Reservation, which isn't Navajo.  He was born and lived most of his life in northern CA.  He chatted with us during lunch for about 45 minutes.  He checked our permit along with everyone else there, except the rafting parties.  He was very pleasant and informative.  He did speak the native Navajo.  He was 67 years old.  Here a few photos along the Diamond Creek Road and at the river's edge we took.

OK, on our way back to the MH in Grand Canyon Village, we stopped back by Seligman.  We made it a point to allow some time there to take a few more photos and pick up a couple of t-shirts.

Tow-Mater look-alike

An old Edsel in front of nostalgia

More nostalgia

Not sure what year it is; Al, you may know as I am much younger than you.  :-)

Many old replicas to view and reminisce..

Old '55 Chevy wagon

Joe & 'Mater, two oldies but goodies...

Well, we finally made it back the Grand Canyon road and near home on wheels.  What a view. just fit for the type of day we had.  It is great to be outdoors, but in such a grand place as the great southwest and the sunsets.  Doesn't get any better I don't reckon.

So, till the next time, signing off for now, Joe & Nancy...